Partner Sophie Adlersparre
Queer Places:
McLeod Plantation Historic Site, 325 Country Club Dr, Charleston, SC 29412, USA
Uppsala gamla kyrkogård, Villavägen 1B, 751 08 Uppsala, Sweden
Rosalie Ulrika Olivecrona (December 25, 1823 - May 12, 1898), born Rosalie Ulrika Roos on December 9, 1823, in Stockholm, and passing away on June 4, 1898, in the same city,
was a foundational Swedish feminist, writer, editor, and teacher who shaped the early organized women's rights movement in Scandinavia.
Born into a wealthy family as the daughter of field marshal Olof Gustaf Roos and Ulrika Euphrosyne von Keppel, she spent her early years in Stockholm and studied at the Wallinska Flickskolan until she was thirteen. In 1839, her family moved to a farm near Mösseberg at the foot of the mountainous plateau in Västergötland, where she helped educate her younger siblings and developed a keen awareness of societal inequalities between the sexes.
In 1851, despite strong opposition from family and friends who felt transatlantic travel was inappropriate for young ladies, she traveled to the United States. A friend, Hulda Hahr, had moved to America with her brother and secured her a teaching position at a girls' school in Limestone, South Carolina. She spent four years abroad, initially teaching French and music before working as a governess on a plantation south of Charleston owned by the family of her students, Eliza and Annie Perronneau. During her stay, she traveled extensively, visiting the Mississippi River and making an excursion to Havana on her return journey to Sweden in 1855 via New Orleans. Though she did not personally witness direct physical abuse of enslaved people, she viewed slavery as unnatural and emotionally disgusting, correctly predicting its eventual abolition despite heavy resistance. She later detailed her observations in her published letters, Travel to America 1851-55.
Upon returning to Stockholm on New Year's Day 1856, she met Sophie Adlersparre (née Leijonhufvud), initiating a lifelong partnership that would redefine women's social standing in Sweden. Before this, under the pseudonym La Straniera, she had published a book of poems in 1855. Displaying a more radical approach than Adlersparre, Olivecrona published an anonymous 1857 article titled A crying voice in the desert in Aftonbladet, demanding public recognition for the lack of education and upbringing afforded to girls.
In 1859, alongside Sophie Adlersparre and with financial backing from Fredrika Limnell, she founded Tidskrift för hemmet ("Journal for the Home"), Scandinavia's first women's magazine. Publishing out of Stockholm until 1885, the publication tackled women's unjust societal positions, arguing passionately for higher education and professional self-sufficiency. Olivecrona wrote numerous foundational articles for the journal, including Kvinnan och arbetet, Flickors uppfostran, and Kvinnors religiosa uppfostran, signing her work with initials such as St and --rs.
Her international travels heavily influenced the journal's content. Following her marriage in the spring of 1857 to Swedish lawyer, statesman, and Uppsala University law professor Knut Olivecrona (1817–1905), the couple traveled through Europe, meeting Sophie Adlersparre in Hamburg and journeying together to Prague, Vienna, Venice, Switzerland, and southern France. Later, in 1861, Roos and Adlersparre undertook a dedicated tour of Germany, France, and the British Isles to compare international feminist movements. They discovered that while the women's rights issue was virtually unknown in France and Germany, Great Britain offered active models like The English Woman's Journal and The Society for Promoting the Employment of Women. These insights inspired Swedish adaptations such as the address bureau for working women and ladies' reading rooms, while Olivecrona's 1868 article, The Missing Link Between Employer and Job Seeker, directly contributed to the 1870 establishment of Bikupan, a sales outlet for fine needlework created by insolvent women.
Beyond publishing, Olivecrona was a co-founder of the Swedish Red Cross. In 1864, she participated in crucial discussions at Sophie Adlersparre's home alongside Major General Rudebeck and Dr. Lemchen, resulting in the official formation of the organization in 1865.
Roos' profound relationship with Sophie Adlersparre formed the emotional and intellectual core of early Swedish feminism. While Olivecrona married widower Knut Olivecrona in 1857—moving to Uppsala, becoming stepmother to his son and three daughters, and having two children of her own, Axel and Eliza—her deep personal and collaborative bond with Adlersparre remained central. When the Olivecrona family relocated back to Stockholm in the autumn of 1868, Rosalie immediately resumed her heavy workload at the magazine alongside Adlersparre. Rosalie Ulrika Olivecrona passed away in 1874-75 (by age calculation, aged 74) in Stockholm and is buried in Uppsala's old cemetery (Uppsala gamla kyrkogård).
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